I see you: Shine!

🎧 Listen to the original voice message in spanish from La Jardinera

My dear seeds,

This happened one summer night, it was the night of San Juan. As you all know, Saint John the Baptist was the cousin of Jesus, and he came to prepare the way, to prepare and announce who was coming.

That night of San Juan is the longest night of the year, so a bonfire is usually made, called the San Juan bonfire, and people also go to the beach, bathe, and stay awake. At five in the morning, they go to have a coffee with milk, a croissant, and start the day's work.

This is what has always been done, what young people usually do, it is very beautiful, very beautiful.

Well, that beautiful summer night, the sky was clear, and you could see all the stars, there were thousands of stars, and in summer, fireflies always come out.

They are those little bugs that have a light on their abdomen, their belly lights up when it starts to get dark, and there they light up the forest, light up the trees, light up human beings. And at that moment, it is also a time to look for a partner, to look for friends, to look for a companion.

It is their way of announcing: “I am passing by. Do you like me? Do you not like me?”

This is what fireflies do, they are beautiful little animals, very beautiful, it is always at night when they light up with fluorescent green.

One of those nights, the firefly family; the trees were full, full, full, and the whole forest, and they went out, evidently, as I have explained to you, to light up, to bring joy, to share, to look for friendship, to look for love.

And especially, to light up those big, beautiful trees that were majestic at night. And from a hole in a tree, a whole family came out, but someone stayed inside. And the mother said, "Daughter, you have to come out!"

"Come out, it is already night! You have to turn on the light!" "No, no!" said the little one. "I don't want to come out, no, no, no!" "But you have to come out! Don’t you see that it is the night for us and for all the fireflies?"

And she refused, and once more, she stayed inside. Everyone was outside, happy, moving, dancing, and this young one stayed inside, and suddenly, her grandmother came and asked: "And where is the little one?" She said, as always, locked inside the tree, not wanting to come out.

"Well, I’m going to look for her," said the grandmother. She went in and said to her:

"Why don't you want to come out?"

And she said: "Grandma, it’s because I have very little light, and I am afraid and ashamed that they will laugh at me. You all have very bright lights, and you can be seen from afar, and you smile, you are happy, but I, being smaller in size than you all..."

Not because she was young, nor a child, but because she was smaller than the others, and she felt self-conscious and ashamed.

Then the grandmother said to her, "Sit down, I’m going to explain to you:

"Each of us, when we are born, we are born with a light. Some grow, they become big, others remain medium-sized, and some small ones shine less, but it is not because they are different or smaller, it is simply because the force is more concentrated.

So you don’t have to listen to the comments, nor what they will say, nor if they laugh. Go out and shine as much as you can, don’t worry, at night we are all the same."

"No, grandma, no, grandma, because my light is so tiny that it is immediately seen."

"Don’t worry, now you will understand: Do you see the moon at night?"

"Yes!"

"Do you see how it shines?"

"Very much! I would love to be like her!"

"Well, now I will explain, there are days when the moon shines immensely, which is the full moon, but there are other times when the moon is waning, and you can only see half of it, until it almost disappears, and then we don’t see it anymore. Have you noticed that detail?"

"Oh, it is true, grandma, it is true, sometimes the moon hides, and we don’t see its light."

"Do you understand now? And the light of the moon is bigger than us, when it is in its splendor, yes, it is true, but when it wanes, it is hardly seen, and it owes its splendor to the sun. If the sun did not set, the moon would not shine, so the moon, which is so big and so bright, depends on the sun. And you, little one, is there someone who hides your light?"

"No, grandma, let’s go now, let’s not wait any longer, let’s go."

And then she ran out of the cave of her tree and went and joined all the fireflies. Then she was happy, joyful, laughing, playing, and that, my dear seeds, makes us understand that we have the Light from the moment we are born.

It is that Spark we carry inside, that Spark that makes our heart good, our goodness, our generosity, our love. That Spark of Light, when we always do something that we are satisfied and happy with, it shines brightly.

And other times it shines less because we are tired or simply because we are going to sleep. That is why, my dear seeds, never listen to the comments of others, never listen to the compliments, nor listen to the laughter, nor if you are criticized.

Be proud of yourselves and see the greatness in each of you, there is no greater or smaller, we all have that Light, those qualities, that is why we sometimes say: "we have made a mistake," but that mistake is to make us bigger, to correct it, to grow, and to not repeat it.

So our dear friend firefly never again listened to criticism, nor laughter, she was happy, and she never hid again because what was important was to come out and shine and see ourselves as we are and enhance our qualities.

You are honest, hardworking, honorable, beautiful, you have a crystalline, clean, large soul. What more do you want? And your heart is what you fill it with. If you fill it with joy, you will have joy. If you fill it with happiness, you will be happy and you will share that happiness with others who need it so much.

And if one day you feel like crying, cry, because there will always be someone who will also have that feeling, but once we cry, the cup empties and fills with joy again. Always remember, that light is within you, no matter what they say, it never goes out, nor will it go out, because it is eternal.

So, when you see those fireflies at night, admire them and say: if they are happy, we even more so, because we have a reason, a conscience, we can analyze, we can do so many wonderful things because you are, you are great and strong, and all the work you do is for yourselves, to see that inner strength you have and that capacity.

So never allow them to laugh at you, nor to judge you, nor to criticize anything because your soul is magnificent, and your purity is like crystalline water. That’s how our firefly friend learned what life was like.

Accepting ourselves as we are, just as we are, because each one of us is unique, unique, there are no two alike, unique, that is why we are so important because we are unique. Those who see us will appreciate us, those who do not see us, it’s a pity because they will be blind and will only see what shines, but the important thing is that one sees that you are extraordinary and always shine.

With all my love, your Jardinera,

Enjoy the entire summer and always contemplate the sky, because where there are no fireflies, there are stars, and those stars are you.